pulpit

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A raised platform in a church, sometimes enclosed, where the minister or preacher stands when giving the sermon; also, the lectern on such a platform.

   Always, whether in the pulpit or on the platform, as in private conversation, there is an absolute simplicity about the man and his words; a simplicity, an earnestness, a complete honesty.

2. 2
   noun

   An individual or particular preaching position or role; a pastorate.

   He seems like too timid a man to fill the pulpit at such a large church.

3. 3
   noun

   A bow platform for harpooning.

   [Hooper:] Will you just please go to the end of the pulpit! [Brody:] What for? [Hooper:] I need to have something in the foreground to give it some scale. [Brody:] Foreground, my ass!

4. 4
   noun

   A plane's cockpit.

   In the slang of the Royal Air Force man, the cockpit of his plane is the ‘pulpit’ or ‘office’, the glass covering over it the ‘greenhouse’.

From Middle English pulpit, from Old French pulpite and Latin pulpitum (“platform”). Doublet of pulpitum and polypus. Piecewise doublet of polypod.

Topics